The present invention relates to audio applications in general and, in particular, to audio decomposition and score generation.
It may be desirable to provide accurate, real time conversion of raw audio input signals into score data for transcription. For example, a musical performer (e.g., live or recorded, using vocals and/or other instruments) may wish to automatically transcribe a performance to generate sheet music or to convert the performance to an editable digital score file. Many elements may be part of the musical performance, including notes, timbres, modes, dynamics, rhythms, and tracks. The performer may require that all these elements are reliably extracted from the audio file to generate an accurate score.
Conventional systems generally provide only limited capabilities in these areas, and even those capabilities generally provide outputs with limited accuracy and timeliness. For example, many conventional systems require the user to provide data to the system (other than an audio signal) to help the system convert an audio signal to useful score data. One resulting limitation is that it may be time-consuming or undesirable to provide data to the system other than the raw audio signal. Another resulting limitation is that the user may not know much of the data required by the system (e.g., the user may not be familiar with music theory). Yet another resulting limitation is that the system may have to provide extensive user interface capabilities to allow for the provision of required data to the system (e.g., the system may have to have a keyboard, display, etc.).
It may be desirable, therefore, to provide improved capabilities for automatically and accurately extracting score data from a raw audio file.